Why Baptismal Regeneration Does Not Obtain

1. Baptism corresponds to circumcision. 

Colossians 2:11 - 12

11 In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, 12 having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead.  (Colossians 2:11–12, ESV)

Baptism corresponds to circumcision.  There is no text of Scripture that teaches circumcision has been replaced  by baptism. 

2. Let’s look at the historical record of how the relationship between baptism & circumcision came to be. 

Genesis 1

1. The Bible teaches that God created everything that is created. 
2. The Spirit of God hovered over the face of the deep.   
3. God divided the skies above from the expanse of waters below. 
4. God judged every thing as He created it, pronouncing it as good.

Genesis 6 - 8 & I Peter 3:18 - 20

1. This part is really straightforward.  God judged the earth with water.  
2. The writer of 1 Peter draws attention to this correspondence in Chapter 3.  Ergo, from the LORD’s perspective, He baptized the world.   

For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit, 19 in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison, 20 because they formerly did not obey, when God’s patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through water. 21 Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, 22 who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers having been subjected to him.  (1 Peter 3:18–22, ESV)

3. Circumcision

As the story of God’s covenant with all living things expands, we have already seen that baptism preceded circumcision.    

Abraham (Genesis 17) received circumcision from the LORD, and ever since, the Jews (and others following after them) have used & understood circumcision as an initiatory rite that places children outwardly into what we Presbyterians call the Covenant of Grace.     

As a blood rite, as an act of inductive prophecy (prophecy with-through objects) with an intuitive (prophecy with-through words) component.   It therefore is designed as an answer to pagan/demonic/Satanic blood rites in general & those used by witches, sorcerers, & other idolaters who dedicated themselves & their children to demons & pagan pseudodeities (Genesis 6:4). 

Baptism did not cease.  The terms of the Abrahamic, Mosaic, & Davidic Covenants do not repeal baptism with water, nor do they directiy institute it.  However, contained in the Law are instructions about ceremonial washings  including the hands of priests (in whom are God & the people), those cleansed of leprosy, clothes, & objects (Mark 7).  

Note: In Mark 7, Yeshua isn’t rebuking the washing of objects—rather He’s rebuking the legalistic observance of these practices as part of the web of works righteousness that has settled like a deep fog over the land like the fog in Doctor Who: The Web of Fear.  

Then came John the Baptist.  By his time, Second Temple Judaism had expanded these practices into washings of the body in living water.  Yeshua was baptized by John in the Jordan River (Matt. 3, Mark 1, Luke 3). Today, both men & women in the Jewish community are known to wash in a mikvah.  Christians have expanded this practice into the rite of baptism.  

4. The chronological covenant history of baptism & circumcision

Edenic: God created the world & watered it.   Through Christ, He bled it. 

Antediluvian: God watered the created order via the water cycle of that age. People begin engaging in blood rites, some of which are used to dedicate adults & children to demons & pseudodeities. 

Aegis:  He judged the world with-through a deluge.    Demonic/pagan/Satanic blood rites continue. 

Patriarchal: Abraham receives circumcision as a confutation of demonic/pagan/Satanic blood rites. 

Sinaitic:   Circumcision continues. The Law lays down abiding principles & concrete particulars fit for the age for various washing & cleansing rites. 

Monarchical:   Circumcision continues. The Law lays down abiding principles & concrete particulars fit for the age for various washing & cleansing rites. 

Reformational:  Christ fulfills the terms of the Covenant(s) on behalf of all living things without repeal of circumcision.  Baptism is instituted as a unity rite for both men & women.   Jewish people, Muslims, & others continue circumcision & other water rites.   The age of demonic/pagan/Satanic blood rites declines as people adopt monotheism.   

New Davidic: We realize that God has baptized us, animals, & the environment via rain & other methods all along.   Using data gathered from the study of the Enemy’s work parodying our own, we recover our understanding of the nature of inductive prophecy as we move toward the Summation of All Things. 

5. Putting it all together 

Some might say that this baptism was special, relegated to the Edenic Covenant, & the Flood in the days of Noah.   

There is no text that states that to be case.   The argument would have to look something like an argument for Classic or Progressive Dispensationalism, which draw distinctions between Israel at various stages of their development as  a people group, relating them to the Plan of Salvation as it unfolds from era to era, emphasizing discontinuity between the Mosaic/Davidic (Old) Covenant & the Johannine (New) Covenant.    

Hebrews teaches that the atonement of Christ takes center stage as does His intercession as the Great High Priest, whom Paul calls the only Mediator between God & men (1 Timothy 2:5).    At no point does Hebrews address baptism, the laying on of hands, the necessity of repentance, etc.  The discussion of the “newness” of Christ’s work centers on the things He does —  not what we do.     

Therefore let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, 2 and of instruction about washings, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. (Hebrews 6:1–2, ESV)

The argument for circumcision having been replaced by baptism, if it runs through Hebrews, turns the discussion toward certain things that allegedly follow from the supremacy of Christ & His authority & power and the scope of His Person & work.  Doing so veers from the stated status of such things according to the text of Hebrews.   Hebrews says these instructions on water rites are considered part of a foundation that has already been laid.  Ergo, baptism has not replaced circumcision.  

Does baptism regenerate?  No, it most certainly does not.   John 3’s statement about the necessity of being born by water & spirit is a reference to Ezekiel 36. 

I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you (Ezekiel 36:25, ESV)

If baptism as a water rite is a sacramental rite that regenerates, then it must to so in every covenant.  There is no such thing as the New Covenant.  If baptism as a water rite is a sacramental rite that regenerates, then it must to so in every covenant.  There is no such thing as the New Covenant.  “New” is a descriptive term for every covenant given to us by God.   They are cyclical in nature, expanding one upon the other, so that there is, from our perspective, always an old to new relation. 

There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism (Ephesians 4:5) — and one covenant (in many administrations).  Since baptism & circumcision correspond, why don’t Roman Catholics & others talk about circumcisional regeneration?  Christ’s Person & work is non-repeatable & underwrites every covenantal administration in every age for all eternity (Hebrews 7:7, 10:12; 1 Peter 3:18, Romans 6:20), therefore, if it somehow underwrites baptismal regeneration, it must do so for circumcision & even the rain as well.  

For more on baptismal efficacy see “Does Baptism Avail?” is few pages back.  

May God bless us all each & every one, & go and sin no more.